Microfiltration and ultrafiltration, categorized as low-pressure membranes, are drawing attention
as new technologies for water purification systems. This is because they work as a complete barrier,
mainly against Cryptosporidium. Furthermore, the removal of not only solid but also dissolved
contaminants in raw water is eagerly desired. To meet this demand, hybrid systems combined with
membrane filtration are becoming increasingly important.
NGK has been supplying users with unique ceramic membrane filtration systems combined with
pre-coagulation that afford excellent energy saving, reduction of maintenance work, and stable
operation. However, both installation and operation cost would still be more desirable. The authors
have been testing means of achieving higher filtration flux operation while maintaining efficiency.
This paper discusses the performance of high flux operation with certain devices.
To achieve a high flux operation such as 250 gfd (= 420 L/m2/hr) against river surface water and
dam water with direct filtration, the reduction of two kinds of transmembrane pressure (TMP) may
be the main breakthrough. On-site experiments led to the expectation that the daily changed
TMP increase after BW would be reduced dramatically by the combination of acid chemically
enhanced backwash (CEB), and that a TMP increase of one filtration cycle would be reduced by
in-line flocculation. As a result, the hybrid system with pre-coagulation, in-line flocculation and
ceramic membrane filtration with acid CEB showed the possibility of high flux direct operation of
250 gfd (= 420 L/m2/hr) with quite stable condition against organic contaminated river surface water. Includes 8 references, tables, figures.